Figure 6.

Highly rigorous blood–brain barrier formation takes place when the cells are cultured in the presence of flow. TEER was measured following the growth of hCMEC/D3 and astrocytes on permeable membranes (A) under static and dynamic (4–15 dyn/cm²) conditions. The TEERs of hCMEC/D3 were measured when grown on permeable inserts in the absence and presence of shear stress. Steady-state TEER values were typically reached in the static BBB by day 4 of culture and were attained by the TripleB slides by day 5. (n = 6). Permeability to the tracer molecule FITC–dextran; (B) a significant decrease in the apparent permeability to FITC–dextran was induced in the BBB cultured in dynamic flow conditions as compared to the static BBBs (n = 4) (C) The ability of immune cells to cross the BBB was significantly downregulated under dynamic flow conditions. Migratory capacity of PBMCs was evaluated across a static and a dynamic BBB. Significantly lower numbers of PBMCs were recovered from the TripleB culture as compared to the amount of cells harvested from a static culture of BBB. (n = 4, *** p ≤ 0.001).